The rise of nanometers

Just when Xie Qing's team began to set up their own scientific research studio.

With the full support of the Suiren Department, in the Tanggu base in the Mobei Altai Gobi region, the prototype of the Tanggu-1 has entered the final sprint stage.

Huang Xiuyuan used a stand-in robot to appear deep underground in the base. At this time, the Yugu No. 1 prototype had changed dramatically from the beginning.

When Yutani No. 1 was initially designed, all systems were very crude, and some systems were taken directly from existing equipment.

In the past year of design and construction, Wanfeng's team discovered many problems and successively improved the design.

The core reactor of Yutani No. 1 is 137 meters high, 54 meters wide and 63 meters long.

The supporting positron current internal circulation system, positron supply system, steam turbine power generation system, nuclear waste recycling system, etc. occupy 65% ​​of the underground base that is several kilometers long and 300 meters wide.

Huang Xiuyuan stood not far from the core reactor. The shape of the core reactor was like a large tank, similar to the large upright tanks in common concrete mixing factories today.

He flipped through the half-section diagram of the internal structure on the tablet. Inside the large tank, in addition to the positron current layer, proton recovery divertor, and nuclear reaction waste collector, was the photothermal composite power generation panel system.

These photothermal photovoltaic power generation panels are like pieces of fish scales, neatly arranged and grouped together, wrapped outside the positron current layer.

Behind the photovoltaic photothermal panel, there is a layer of lead plate with a thickness of 12 cm, which is used to protect against gamma rays.

The products of nuclear fusion are divided into five types: photons, neutrinos, electrons, neutrons, and nuclear fusion nuclei.

Don't ignore the neutrino among them, because this particle does not carry huge energy and will not harm equipment or humans. It can penetrate everything.

Neutrons were the most troublesome particles before. High-energy neutrons produced in nuclear fusion reactions carry 75 to 80% of the total energy produced by nuclear fusion reactions.

In fact, if humans are unable to utilize the energy of neutrons, the energy produced per unit of nuclear fuel in a nuclear fusion reaction may not be much higher than that of a fission reactor.

Yutani-1 uses the positron current layer to transform high-energy neutrons into high-energy charged protons. Therefore, this part of the energy is the big fat in the entire reaction.

The remaining photons, electrons, and atomic nuclei only carry 20 to 25% of the energy, and the energy carried by the electrons and atomic nuclei will also be utilized.

In the end, only photons are left. Photons in nuclear fusion reactions include X-rays, gamma rays, visible light, ultraviolet and infrared rays.

Among them, the most dangerous photons are gamma rays and .

"Gaofeng, thank you for your hard work."

Wan Gaofeng shook his head humbly: "It's all within my duties. It is also an honor for me to build this equipment with my own hands and realize controllable nuclear fusion."

Huang Xiuyuan continued: "I saw your progress schedule, and Tanggu No. 1 should be completed in January next year."

"Yes." Wan Gaofeng thought for a while and replied: "The various systems designed now have been put in place one after another. We only need the last few parts. I believe the construction will be completed soon."

Huang Xiuyuan reminded: "Although from the simulation experiment, Tanggu No. 1 has almost reached the current perfect stage, but be careful, after all, this is a nuclear fusion reaction."

"Thank you, Chairman, for reminding me." Wan Gaofeng nodded.

Any experiment must be based on safety. Although all aspects of the problem have been taken into consideration in the design of Yugu-1, some unexpected problems may still occur during actual operation.

Controlled nuclear fusion, although it is called controlled nuclear fusion, does not mean that we can sit back and relax.

Huang Xiuyuan said one more thing: "Bazhong's Jinwu-1 is also progressing very quickly. It is estimated that it will be put into trial operation around May next year."

"I've communicated with them several times, and it's really fast."

While the two were discussing, they inspected the entire Yugu base.

Coming to the electron and proton flow circulation area, the core power generation system is arranged here. Although the current power generation technology is very advanced, it is still essentially boiling water.

Although academic circles at home and abroad have always wanted to get rid of boiling water and use magnetic fluid power generation systems, the current magnetic fluid power generation technology is still immature.

Especially when used in the electron and proton flow of nuclear fusion, this is even more difficult.

There was nothing Huang Xiuyuan could do about it. In the electron and proton flow circulation pipe, an electrostatic field was used to control the electron and proton flow.

If it is combined into the magnetic fluid power generation system, it may cause problems in the electrostatic field control system. After all, both are electromagnetic systems, and mutual influence and interference are inevitable phenomena.

Therefore, the immature magnetic fluid power generation system has naturally not been applied to Yugu-1 and Jinwu-1.

Yutani No. 1 still uses steam turbines that boil water to generate electricity. It uses six 1,000-megawatt steam turbines with a total installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts. Calculated with 8,000 hours of power generation per year, the annual power generation can reach 48 million megawatts, that is 48 billion kilowatts.

The photovoltaic power generation system and thermoelectric power generation system can generate about 12 billion kilowatts of electricity every year.

Calculated, the total installed capacity of Yugu No. 1 has reached 7,500 megawatts, and the comprehensive thermal efficiency has reached about 72%.

This efficiency is already higher than that of the current domestic fission pressurized water reactors. The old domestic pressurized water reactors have been upgraded and transformed many times, such as the installation of a thermoelectric power generation system and the use of new Beifeng heavy-duty steam turbines. The comprehensive thermal efficiency is increased to about 62%.

Of course, even if controllable nuclear fusion comes out, it will not immediately replace fission reactors, because the by-products of fission reactors - carbon 14, plutonium, etc., can be used to create nuclear decay batteries and stable radioactive sources.

Especially in the current aerospace field, nuclear decay batteries made of carbon 14 play a very important role.

Moreover, the cost of current controllable nuclear fusion power plants is still high. The main advantage is that the abundance of nuclear fuel for nuclear fusion is relatively large.

After all, Yutani No. 1 can only use deuterium as raw material. It does not require expensive and rare tritium or helium 3. It can be directly refined through heavy water.

The abundance of deuterium in seawater is about three parts per hundred thousand. It seems that the abundance is very low. The problem is that the total amount of water resources in Blue Star is large enough.

The amount of deuterium extracted from seawater around the world is several megatons.

According to the current electricity consumption of mankind, these deuterium elements are enough for mankind for tens of billions of years.

The advantage of pure deuterium fusion reactions is that the abundance of nuclear fuel is very large, enough to support mankind into the interstellar era. Unlike uranium, plutonium, tritium, and helium 3, which are rare resources.

The raw materials are abundant and not difficult to refine. They can be directly ionized and evaporated, or membrane filtration or high-speed centrifugal separation can be used.

Nuclear power can be used as an energy source to extract large amounts of deuterium.

The cost of raw materials drops, and other components and supporting facilities of the system can also use a large amount of cheap electricity to feed these manufacturing plants, further reducing their production costs.

This can form a closed loop, allowing the cost of electricity production and manufacturing costs to continue to decline.

Thank you for your support (ω｀). I am feeling a little unwell today, so I will update twice⊙﹏⊙